American Icons Responce

1. Dan Eldon

1. What does this Icon represent to you? Why?

Dan Eldon was an amazing man who moved to Africa when he was just seven years old. He witnessed firsthand the events surrounding the coup and was around to experience its aftermath. Eldon joined his mother, a journalist in Kenya at the time, as she was assigned to stories in the local area. Soon Eldon was taking pictures, which were used in the local newspapers. He then wanted to make a career out of it and when he was just fourteen, Eldon started a fund-raising campaign for open-heart surgery to save the life of Atieno, a young Kenyan girl. His sister and he raised $5,000 for the surgery but sadly Atieno died from hospitals neglect. Later when he was fifteen he started journalism and photography with his friends, he then started keeping a journal of his life. This man never stopped trying to uncover the truth and he wasn’t afraid to prove something right, this is sadly what killed him. But he helped raise awareness to people and he also was the man to help inspire Jason Russell and Laren Poole, the creators of Invisible Children just as he inspires me to try and help change the world.

5. Who and what did this Icon inspire?

Dan Eldon helped inspire many of his classmates to get into journalism and try to help make a change in the world. He also was the one to inspire Jason Russell and Laren Poole to go over to Africa and make a documentary which helped start Invisible Children and helped spread awareness all around the world about the wars in Africa.

4. How did this Icon become important to you?

Well the war in Africa has been something that I feel strongly about stopping for a while now, another thing that I have been trying to be as involved as possible with is the company Invisible Children. So to find the man who helped inspire those people who now are inspiring so many is amazing.

2. Jason Russell and Laren Poole

3. Who and what was important to this Icon? Why

Both of these men are the creators of Invisible Children and they are very passionate about helping everyone who is tortured by the corrupt government and Joseph Kony in Africa. They first went over to Africa to film a documentary called “Rough Cut”. What started out as a filmmaking adventure transformed into much more when these boys from Southern California discovered a tragedy that disgusted and inspired them, a tragedy where children are both the weapons and the victims. So they started the company Invisible Children to raise awareness about it in the United States.

4. How did this Icon become important to you?

Well in ninth grade when I found out about this twelve year long war I wanted to help try and make a difference. So when I found this company it really inspired me and helps me make the change I want to.

5. Who and what did this Icon inspire?

These two men inspired many people to join in on the cause; they now have a big staff all around the world. The find it very important to try and inform as many people as possible about this unfair war. They have even come to our school and many others to raise awareness to younger adults, these men inspire change in our world.

5. Bob Fosse

4. How did this Icon become important to you?
Bob Fosse completely changed dance for today, he created and taught a style so different from anything anyone had seen that it inspired many different styles like modern, lyrical and jazz. This affects me directly considering that I dance these styles all the time and it also inspires me to think outside of the box while I’m dancing and try to think about doing different moves no one has done before. He completely changed my viewing on dance and how it now is even more creative to me.

1. What does this Icon represent to you? Why?
Bob Fosse was an amazing dancer; teacher and I loved how he proved one person could change how people view something. But Bob Fosse was not just a dancer he was also an actor musical theater choreographer, director, screenplay, film editor and film director. Bob Fosse made a huge impact on the arts and he inspires me every day.

2. Who and what was important to this Icon? Why?
Something that was always important to Bob Fosse was that his dances be perfect. He had a long line of drug abuse and he was quite the player but he would leave all of that alone and work on his dances to make sure they were new and creative. He would use everything as inspiration and turn it into a dance number or even plays. Another thing that was very important to him was his daughter, she was the one person he loved the most in the world and she helped inspire him and helped a lot with his work.